Still in the dark ages
I was in ICU last night and I seen a patient that was admitted. She came from Asia in hopes to be able to help her husband support her family back home. A recruiting agency here located in the Sofitel area in Doha arrange to bring her over as a maid. The first family she was assigned to neglect to give her even the basic right as proper food and demanding long hours. The second family was even worst with even less consideration. The slave driving representative from the recruiting agency (By the way of her own nationality) said she was too lazy to work. Then finally she was taken to A&E after she could no longer stand up when the agency owner tried to get her to stand up to get rid of her. She was admitted immediately for deficiency from lack of food intake and exhaustion. The reassuring thing to me is the heads of the two abusive families who starved her and ill treated her work in law enforcement here. I hear the government make many statements about being fair and stomping out this kind of practice. They talk the talk. When are they going to walk the walk??? I don’t hear of CNN operation freedom here. Maybe global standards do not apply?
There is no denial that there is a record of abuses, I think that it’s the responsibility of workers countries of origin. All studies proves that workers are somehow conned in their own country by those fake agencies
Ministry of labor cant monitor each & every case with its obvious lack of manpower no matter how many laws are imposed
"certain higher ranked people were trampling over the rights of the common man."
Isnt the what the occupy movement is protesting about??
if it is successful, it's democracy, if it fails, it's rebellion?
Democracy isn't simply the will of many outweighing the will of the few. All successful democracies are underpinned by a just and equitable legal system.
Even dictatorships need a legal system - the Arab Spring took hold in so many countries in this part of the world because corruption and injustice took hold, and certain higher ranked people were trampling over the rights of the common man.
That's how democracy works, but not crime.
democracy works. The rule of majority, right?
Surely one case of a maid being abused does outweigh several cases of maids not being abused. If people only took action when the majority of people were committing a crime, then there would be no laws.
It's like ignoring a murder because the majority of people aren't committing murders.
S_Isale, 6 months ago on a burning summer Friday, when I was crossing the road from my home heading for a nearby supermarket, I then saw a man lying on the pavement in front of a Mosque with blood all over his face and clothes. This man was lying there unconscious right outside a mosque and on a Friday afternoon just as the Friday congregation prayer was getting over, all the men in their fantasy white clothes walking like peacocks with eyes fixed on their BB's, so I stopped my car right there and watched from the rear mirror and the man was still lying there and people walking all over him not one decent soul stopped to help this man out of his misery! so I finally decided to get out of the car, rushed to the supermarket got a bottle of water and ran over to where the man was lying still unconscious and profusely bleeding from the head, only after the locals saw me struggling with the injured man a few approached and then someone called the police.
Honoring contracts isn't a strong point in this part of the world. We've all heard of maids being forced to work over 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, no time off, no rest.
All I'm saying is that it isn't a secret to most people that something needs to be done to improve the rights, if any, of maids. Qatar has a bad enough reputation for human rights abuses without having maid problems on top of it all.
There is already a chance that the Philippines government will start to ban their maids coming to work in Qatar if the situation doesn't improve.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/172162-filipino-maids-to-get-model-job-contract.html
maids are already told what to expect when they are offered the job contract....
A maid might be unhappy because she misses home or is bored or something.
Quite a different thing from a maid forced to work 7 days a week, 10 hours a day and treated poorly by her employers.
it is always the bad that is reported. the good never comes through.
Heard two incidents lately - in one case a battered maid was brought for treatment. in another case the sponsor personally brought an injured driver to hospital and the sponsor himself got a bad back after reaching there on account of him having to carrying him into the hospital.
?????????
Unhappy maids or abused maids?
I wonder if there is a part of the community who think that if it's only 5% or 1% or 0.5% of maids being abused then the problem isn't big enough to address?
of the percentage of unhappy maids here in this country?
And what is the real solution?
Lol. Actually Good Old Joe, all the things I have mentioned have regularly been on the front pages of the Gulf Times in Qatar.
That's why it's so astounding to me that there are still some who bury their heads in the sand and talk about 'alleged abuses' and that maids here are happy.
Abuse happens in all parts of the world,not just the Arab world..It's not right and shouldn't happen at all,but it does :(
.. and its high time that the authorities in this country woke up and realized that the guys who are treating their helpless workers in this manner are giving a very bad name to the country and its people. The authorities must see that the guilty are punished and never allowed to employ another maid again. The horror stories certainly travel around to distant shores.
And fubar wins the day for most sarcastic post. ;P
Fubar - You really seem to be out of touch with reality. Just because its not in the front pages it does not mean that everything is nice and rosy out here specially with this segment of workers
Rubbish. If being a maid here was so bad, then there would be heaps of them fleeing from their sponsors.
So many, that there might even be calls for the concerned authorities to set up a hotline to report missing maids.
In fact, there might even be a government run panel looking in to the problem of maids running away, and an examination of why, and perhaps even looking in to ways to find cheaper maids from other countries.
But none of that is happening in Qatar. Maids here are all happy. Right?
No 2012 most of us don't think that this tars a whole culture with the same brush, however, by the fact that we read horror stories in the papers (and these are the ones we actually hear about) means that by our standards we are frankly quite appalled by what goes on and turning a blind eye is not the way to go.
I know you would prefer that it is not discussed and we can therefore all pretend that it does not really happen - perhaps this is what you would like, if so as the original OP said, we are truly in the dark ages here.
Well I think Olympics 2012 must be in the enslavement game that's why he is so passionate about defending this slavery system of this country.
Qatar the state as well as a huge number of Qataris are Still in Denial about the serious Exploitation and enslavement of Workers in this country even After Tier 3 Rating Continues into 2012, as the US State Department keeps Qatar and three fellow members of the Gulf Co-operation Council - Saudi Arabia Oman and Kuwait on Tier 3, the poorest possible rating in its Trafficking in Persons report.
there are good and bad here and everywhere in the world.
So sad...I pray and hope for her recovery!
and yes, We cannot judge all Americans by Bush!
Sorry for that lady
Yes let us all condemn and entire nation and culture for the alleged so-called abuses of a few. LOL. You are all being hypocrites. We cannot judge all Americans by Bush or British by Blair without some calling foul but ok to condemn the whole Arab culture for so-called abuses of a few. Ridiculous. How many of you from the West pay your maid in Qatar the full salary of what she would be earning in your home country??? If not, you are slavers also.
If it is so bad for these maids then they would not come and they would not stay for so many years in Qatar. All nonsense.
do they know their laws? i don't think so.
I know of no-one who behaves like that but I know plenty (not friends be it said) who behave in the other way
quelle surprise!
jjj I know many of them personally.
sad one
Is it true that maids aren't covered under the Labor Law, so it is common for them to be working 7 days, 12 hours a day?
jjj75 karma has a way of catching up with these low lifes....
Also, even if they do kill a maid, they have a charity that will pay their blood money for them - story not so long ago about an Egyptian lady who killed her maid but got no or very little prison time because the charity felt sorry for her and paid the blood money. Good to know you are covered from all angles eh!!!
jjj75, they are mostly expat employers from the western countries.
Fubar that's because the locals over here seem to have some sort of amnesty from being tried or punished for maltreatment of their maids. And because of lack of the rule of law in this part of the world.
One thing I have notice is that screaming to the world equal rights for everyone media like CNN project freedom does not dare to challenge the slavery practice here or any ware in the GCC. Only places they don’t depend on for oil, gas and minerals
Isale - who are these utopian people you speak of - I would love to be employed by them
Another day, another maid story.
All this why the GCC countries are looking at finding even cheaper maids.
There is something dreadfully wrong with this society.
When society is submissive and accept the rule of one family, they in turn tend to find someone to victimize.
There are sponsors out there who sponsor the education of
their maids/drivers kids. There are many who have helped the children of their maids/drivers to get jobs in their own group companies/ the places where they work.
all workers must be phiysically fit before they work here, that's why it's mandatory for us to have medical examination before they process our work permit. so i don't think she's ill even before she arrives here.
then why don't you highlight the GOOD for us s_isale and educate us naysayers!
thing is ts always the bad that is higlighted. The good never comes into the radar....
Another sorry story of a Maid!
If there is a malady that permeates Arab society, it's the notion that they (The maids) are sub-humans and therefore don’t deserve neither clean food and water nor proper rest.
And then you have morons and spineless cowards like 2012 Olympics, who doesn’t even acknowledge that such backward practices do exist in Arab and GCC states, let alone condone the ill-treatment of maids and then launches into a paragraph vilifying them, going so far as to brand them rapists and molesters!
In the 3 and half years I've lived in the Middle East, if I had a dollar every time I read about an Arab family abusing an Asian/African maid, I could've retired by now.
There is a severe need for labour laws to protect domestic help, if for no other reason than to shield them from people like Olympics 2012.
...and they have the guts to say that she's too lazy to work??? WTF!
the only lucky thing might be she din get molested...
dats how usually arabs treat der maids like tools n
expendable machines..
Sorry to hear about what happened to that lady, let us all pray for her to get well and recover from the traumatic experiences and maltreatment she received from those heart-less employers.. It will be better for to go back to her native country and be with her family.
its a typical case in all arab countries.
Get used to it, this is Qatar, slavery exists - at least the romans fed their slaves
how sad..
i hope she'll be fine..
The authorities will bury their heads in the sand as usual and state there are no such problems in this wonderful country which all us expats are extremlly lucky to be in.....
Try not properly eating and working minimum 12 hours a day for a month and see how you feel
Sounds like she was ill before even her arrival.